Telescopes looking out from orbit

From orbit a telescope sees light the ground never gets: Hubble works from the ultraviolet to the infrared, Chandra and XMM-Newton in X-rays, Fermi in gamma rays. These are the observatories in orbit around the Earth, the ones Orbinauts has written about first and then the ones GCAT files under astronomy and records as operating, each with the day it was launched and who flies it.

See these on the map.

  1. Hubble Space TelescopeSpace telescopeOperating

    Launched on 24 April 1990 from the Space Shuttle; a 2.4 m mirror and five working instruments, serviced by astronauts five times, the last in May 2009.

  2. Chandra X-ray ObservatorySpace telescopeOperating

    Launched on 23 July 1999; an X-ray telescope on a 63.5 hour orbit that swings from about 12,000 to 137,000 km out.

  3. XMM-NewtonSpace telescopeOperating

    Launched on 10 December 1999; ESA's X-ray observatory, three mirror modules of 58 nested shells each, on a 48-hour orbit.

  4. Fermi Gamma-ray Space TelescopeSpace telescopeOperating

    Launched on 11 June 2008; a gamma-ray telescope 488 km up, bright enough to be seen with the naked eye on a good pass.

  5. Characterising Exoplanet SatelliteSpace telescopeOperating

    Launched on 18 December 2019; a 32 cm telescope for characterising known exoplanets, a partnership of ESA and Switzerland.

  6. NuSTARSpace telescopeOperating

    Launched on 13 June 2012, 360 kg, flown by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and built by Orbital Sciences (GCAT).

  7. ASTROSATSpace telescopeOperating

    Launched on 28 September 2015, 1,513 kg, India's observatory, flown by ISRO (GCAT).

  8. TESS

    Launched on 18 April 2018, flown by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and built by Orbital ATK (GCAT).

  9. IXPESpace telescopeOperating

    Launched on 9 December 2021, 330 kg, flown by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and built by Ball Aerospace (GCAT).

  10. XRISMSpace telescopeOperating

    Launched on 6 September 2023, 2,700 kg, flown by JAXA (GCAT).

  11. Einstein TanzhenSpace telescopeOperating

    Launched on 9 January 2024, 1,450 kg, flown by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and built by the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (GCAT).

Whether each one is operating was read from the catalogue on Nov 9, 2026, 4:17 PM UTC. The names and facts of the satellites Orbinauts has not written about are GCAT’s, and so is whether a satellite is operating, except where Orbinauts writes when its mission ended. GCAT is Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0.